.\" RCSid "$Id: mgf2rad.1,v 1.3 2007/09/04 17:36:40 greg Exp $"
.TH MGF2RAD 1 4/12/95 RADIANCE
.SH NAME
mgf2rad - convert Materials and Geometry Format file to RADIANCE description
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B mgf2rad
[
.B "\-m matfile"
][
.B "\-e mult"
][
.B "\-g dist"
]
[
.B input ..
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Mgf2rad
converts one or more Materials and Geometry Format (MGF)
files to a RADIANCE scene description.
By definition, all output dimensions are in meters.
The material names and properties
for the surfaces will be those assigned in MGF.
Any materials not defined in MGF will result in an error during
translation.
Light sources are described inline as IES luminaire files, and
.I mgf2rad
calls the program
.I ies2rad(1)
to translate these files.
If an IES file in turn contains an MGF description of the local
fixture geometry, this may result in a recursive call to
.I mgf2rad,
which is normal and should be transparent.
The only side-effect of this additional translation is the
appearance of other RADIANCE scene and data files produced
automatically by
.I ies2rad.
.PP
The
.I \-m
option may be used to put all the translated materials into a separate
RADIANCE file.
This is not always advisable, as any given material name may be
reused at different points in the MGF description, and writing them
to a separate file loses the contextual association between
materials and surfaces.
As long as unique material names are used throughout the MGF
description and material properties are not redefined, there
will be no problem.
Note that this is the only way to get all the translated materials
into a single file, since no output is produced for unreferenced
materials; i.e. translating just the MGF materials does not work.
.PP
The
.I \-e
option may be used to multiply all the emission values by the
given
.I mult
factor.
The
.I \-g
option may be used to establish a glow distance (in meters)
for all emitting surfaces.
These two options are employed principally by
.I ies2rad,
and are not generally useful to most users.
.SH EXAMPLE
To translate two MGF files into one RADIANCE materials file and
one geometry file:
.IP "" .2i
mgf2rad \-m materials.rad building1.mgf building2.mgf > building1+2.rad
.PP
To create an octree directly from two MGF files and one RADIANCE
file:
.IP "" .2i
oconv '\\!mgf2rad materials.mgf scene.mgf' source.rad > scene.oct
.SH FILES
tmesh.cal	Used to smooth polygonal geometry
.br
*.rad		RADIANCE source descriptions created by ies2rad
.br
*.dat		RADIANCE source data created by ies2rad
.br
source.cal	Used for IES source coordinates
.SH AUTHOR
Greg Ward
.SH "SEE ALSO"
ies2rad(1), mgf2meta(1), obj2rad(1), oconv(1), rad2mgf(1), xform(1)
.PP
MGF web site "http://radsite.lbl.gov/mgf/HOME.html"
